


Dark Ruby Showers

by Its_real_for_us



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Harry Potter, Brother-Sister Relationships, Enemies to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, Malfoy Manor, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Repressed Memories, Suicide Attempt, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:20:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27085489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Its_real_for_us/pseuds/Its_real_for_us
Summary: The smell of treacle tart and pumpkin juice of all things grazed Draco's senses.The Great Hall.He couldn't quite pinpoint why that smell, of many, had come to him so fervently. Draco didn't even particularly like that beverage or dessert.Pinewood ignited with flames. A fire crackled, almost as if a distant memory. Laughter blanketed around Draco's bones, squeezing him faintly.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 8
Kudos: 134





	Dark Ruby Showers

Blood trickled down _his_ legs, _his_ eyes, _his_ mouth. _He_ was drowning in these dark ruby showers of _his_ own creation.

Draco was suffocating under the pressure of it _all_ , of the red liquid pushing his shoulders under, under, under. He couldn't breathe, or think, or feel anything but the flurry of pain that tinkled against his almost-granite skin.

It was so omnipresent that he couldn't bear to look away from _it_. It was dead center, unwavering from his hold; an absolute vertical line that stood perfectly in front of him.

The noise in the background had completey faded. The sound of friendly, post-war chatter, where Muggle-Borns and Pure-Bloods alike were welcomed into Malfoy Manor, had ceased. His mum's old, once strictly prohibited, turntable no longer hummed with melodious song.

_"What a wonderful world, a place where we all just can be."_

It was a beautiful verse, one Draco would've discarded of, for most of his life. He closed his eyes. It was apparent to him that he wouldn't be able to just run away from this hurt.

The smell of treacle tart and pumpkin juice of all things grazed his senses. _The Great Hall._ He couldn't quite pinpoint why that smell, of many, had come to him so fervently. He didn't even particularly like that beverage or dessert.

Pinewood ignited with flames. A fire crackled, almost as if a distant memory. Laughter blanketed around Draco's bones, squeezing him faintly.

Crimson blood and cedar tea, and just perhaps, also, a faint smell of lilies and broom polish washed over him. _These smells and sounds feel all so familiar, yet foreign, to me_.

A flash of raven hair, disheveled, crossed Draco's mind, robes billowed. _This- This can't be._ Tears fell from his eyes. _Save me._

_"Mum!" "Mum!"_

Draco tried to scream, but his lungs were punctured. His vocal chords were pulled and stretched into silent compliance. His words were nothing more than garble ricocheting in his head repeatedly.

 _"Mafloy,"_ a strange voice ringed in Draco's ears. _"Draco, where are you?"_

 _"H- Harry?"_ Draco choked on the name. He'd not even been able to control himself. His mouth seemed independent from the rest of his body. _This must be death. I'd never speak his given name._ The rational part of Draco was set alight.

 _"You need to remain calm,"_ Harry begged.

_"Am I dying?"_

_"Please, Draco."_ Harry's tone was rugged and chipped at the edges, almost as if awaiting the destined, dire outcome he knew would transpire. _"Remain calm. Can you do that for me?"_

_"I need to know, Potter."_

_"Not if I've got anything to do with it,"_ Harry spoke confidently. _"Then, no, you won't die. Tell me where you are?"_

_"As if it would change absolutely anything in your life."_

_"How can you know that?"_ Harry demanded sincerely. Draco laughed.

_"I can know it with certainty, that's how I can know it. For one, look at you. You're The Great Harry Potter, saviour of the entire Wizarding World."_

_"What does that change, exactly?"_

_"It changes everything."_

_"Only if you let it."_

Draco didn't speak, for a moment. He opened his eyes to the ruby showers of his own creation once again. Metallicy-iron to the taste and thickly opaque, he floated. _"What a wonderful world, a place where we all just can be."_

His mother's turnable turned, played with song. The chatter of different wizards and witches, blood statuses a mesh, started once more ever-so-quietly.

There were no differences between them, not like there'd always been throughout Draco's years at Hogwarts. His family was wrong for oppressing those they did, especially for something as benign as where they'd come from.

Draco listened to them converse in what seemed to be the living room many stories below him. He could get used to this; a life without labels. _Why'd I decide to leave?_

 _"Maybe, you're right,"_ Draco replied simply, _"but I let it change everything."_

_"I know you do, now, please, where-"_

_"For second, this is all happening inside of my head."_

_"And why does that mean it isn't real?"_

_"Do you hear yourself, Potter?"_

_"I do."_

_"Hearing things hasn't gone down in history for being a valid source of information."_

_"Only if you let it._ " Draco couldn't help but smile. Harry had always been cocky and sly, he shouldn't be surprised. _He would've probably done well in Slytherin._ Draco couldn't help but almost-chuckle at his own thoughts.

 _Nah, he's too much of a Gryffindork! What am I even saying?_ Everything was so odd now. _Potter and I are finally getting along? Just like I've wanted since my youth, strange it is._

_"I'm dying, aren't I?"_

_"Yes, Draco, you are."_ The realisation hit him much harder than any of his prior flurries of pain. It was brighter, and it burned hotter than any fire Draco could even imagine the Gryffindors conjuring together.

_"I don't want to die," Draco voiced brokenly. Why am I only realising that now?_

_"Why'd you do this?"_

_"I thought it was my only option."_

_"Wasn't your mother and father enough, Malfoy?"_ The turntable halted in its song. The chatter ceased again. And a new sound welcomed Draco before soon disappearing into thin air, too.

It was the sound of fingernails tapping against metal bars, loud and insistent in its despair. _Prison._ Draco shuttered. _Father._ Lucius had killed himself a few weeks into what was supposed to be his lifetime stay in Azkaban.

As well, Narcissa had fallen, at least that's what it seemed. She was nowhere to be found, one day to the next; gone.

_"I couldn't live in a world they didn't exist."_

_"So, you wanted to end the bloodline altogether?"_

_"Nobody would miss it. Will miss it."_

_"I would."_

_"Funny you are,"_ Draco scoffed. _"You're only here because I want you to be here."_

 _"No, Draco,"_ Harry started, _"I'm here because I want to be here, and because I need to know where you are."_

_"Why would you care?"_

_"You know exactly why."_

_"No, I don't."_

_"I care for the exact same reason you do. Tell me, please."_

_"That can't be true. And why does it matter where I am?"_

_"Draco, it's true. I wanted more for you. I wanted you to become an Auror with me."_

_"You're mad. As if they'd let someone like me become an Auror!"_

_"I wanted- I-"_

_"What? What did you want, Potter?"_

_"I- I wanted to make things right between us; start anew."_

_"I- I wanted that, too."_ Draco couldn't help the tears that ran down his cheeks.

 _"I wanted more than that as well,"_ Harry stuttered. _"I wanted you."_

Draco didn't reply, for a long moment. He was dumbstruck. _How could we want the same exact things?_ Normally, he would've questioned Harry, but Draco could hear the sincerity in the other wizard's tone.

 _"O- Ophelia,"_ Draco quivered. _"I'm at the Manor."_

 _"Malfoy Manor?"_ Harry queried. _"But we've already checked there, and Ophelia?"_

 _"Yes, Malfoy Manor,"_ Draco uttered, _"and Ophelia Malfoy."_

_"Who's Ophelia Malfoy? I've never heard of an-"_

_"My sister."_

_"You have a sister?"_

_"Had. Yes,"_ Draco cried.

_"I'm almost there."_

The smell of treacle tart, lilies, pumpkin juice, and cedar tea imbued the air again; Draco's exact Amortentia. _Is that what that is?_ The sound of music, the crackling of a warm fireplace, and the soft chitter-chatter of friends coming together with used-to-be foes, also, drowned out a second one of his senses.

 _That has to be Harry. If not, why am I still holding onto reality just a tiny bit? I'm here._ "Where are you, Malfoy?" _Can't you see I'm just right up here._ "Answer me!"

Ophelia's platinum locks, identical to Draco's, bounced up and down. _"Wait for me!"_ Draco had yelled to his little sister who, at the time, was merely a toddler. _"I'm going to get you!"_

 _"She's not showing any signs of magical abilities yet, Narcissa,"_ Lucius had spat.

 _"Sometimes it takes time."_ Narcissa's voice had been so kind and understanding. _Mum would've loved her the same, wouldn't she have?_

Months passed, still no sign of magic was shown in tiny Ophelia. _"Mum, where's Ophelia?"_

 _"She's at St-Mungo's, she'll be back soon."_ There had been tears in the witch's eyes, ones that begged for her daughter to just come home.

 _"Draco, where are you?"_ Harry yelled, a terse juxtaposition to his mother's words and sadness. _Oh, Ophelia, I'm so sorry!_ "Draco!" I'm right here.

"You need to speak to me!" Harry sounded frantic. "I can't lose you too!"

_"Above mine."_

"Wait, above what?" Harry yelled to no reply. He tried to talk to him mind to mind again, _"Draco?"_

 _"My room."_ Now Draco was sure of it, Harry was definitely right under him.

"There's nothing above your room." _There is. Keep looking. It's hidden._ Draco knew he should be speaking, but life as he knew it was slipping away. "No staircase or secret door. I can't even find any trace of a concealment charm."

With his last remaining strength Draco tried to speak to Harry in his mind again, _"it was boarded up the Muggle way, so, nobody would know."_

A loud bang, and then, there was nothing but a sudden force pulling Draco under, under, under; gravity.

"Draco," Harry screamed, capturing the wizard in his arms as he fell from the ceiling.

Ruby showers came down on them, streams of crimson-coloured decor and old vinyls hit the grounds. A frame with young Draco and an even younger girl fractured into pieces two centimetres beside the Slytherin's visage.

"What's this?" _Ophelia. It's Ophelia._ "You have to wake up!" Harry now sobbed.

Draco felt as spell after spell was cast on him, some he'd never even heard of before. _He must've of learned them in training. They won't work. It's not worth it. I'm gone._

"Please, it's what Ophelia would've wanted, and your mother, Narcissa, she could still be out there. Hermione's missing, too. Maybe they're together."

_"Granger?"_

"Yes, Granger. Thank Merlin, you're there," Harry voiced, his laughter full of relief. "We can find them together."

 _"We can?"_ Draco asked in his head, still completely unaware of how Harry could hear him like this, at all.

"Yes!" Harry promised. "We all deserve to just lead happy lives now. The war is over. Voldemort is gone, Draco."

_"What a wonderful world, a place where we all just can be." The verse. The turntable. The vinyls. The crimson showers. They'd been Ophelia's. Mother had kept it all._

"Exactly," Harry agreed as Draco's eyes opened, an ashen grey. He'd been at Death's door. _Ophelia. Ophelia. Ophelia. Mother. Mother. Mother._

 _"Indeed, we all deserve a second chance,"_ Draco thought. Their mind connection hadn't broken. He grabbed Harry's hand in his, a flurry of ruby showers and his sister's memories still orbited all around them.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos & reviews are love ♡


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